Cognition and Neurocomputations of motivation and planning

Introduction

Being able to make adaptive decisions and follow through is crucial for animals and humans alike. While some simplifications of real-life environments are necessary for laboratory settings, past studies have often removed essential complexity.

Limitations of Current Approaches

Specifically, a common reductionist approach toward decision making focuses exclusively on a neuro-economic framing. However, this neglects that in the real world, behaviour is often a sequence of choices, requiring planning and sustained motivation to reach our goals.

Importance of Sequential Choices

Only by examining cognition and behaviour embedded in these sequences can we gain a full understanding of prefrontal cortex function in general and its cognitive, computational, and neural role in sequential behaviours in particular.

New Neuro-Ethological Approach

To answer this challenge, over the last couple of years, I have been at the forefront of developing a new neuro-ethological approach enabled by advances in:

• Computational modeling
• Experimental designs
• Brain recording
• Stimulation techniques

Key Cognitive Processes

In the proposal, I have identified key cognitive processes linked to challenges the prefrontal cortex has evolved to solve. For the prefrontal cortex, this means sequential and self-determined behaviours.

Interdisciplinary Inspiration

To make the complexity tractable, I take inspiration from multiple disciplines including:

1. Ecology
2. Biology
3. Psychology
4. Neuroscience

This way, I can identify the essential elements for achieving adaptive complex behaviour as a response to real-life challenges and build unifying computational models around those processes.